The management of Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ) has given assurance to investors and stakeholders in the zone that the challenge of electricity supply which has hampered the operations of most investors was being addressed expeditiously.
General manager, Business Development of Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Terhembe David Nongo gave the assurance during a stakeholders’ meeting, when the Senate committee on Trade and Investments took an oversight function visit to the Calabar Free Trade Zone.
Nongo, who represented the managing director of NEPZA, to receive the Senate committee members to CFTZ, told newsmen after a closed-door stakeholders’ meeting that the greatest problem which the management of CFTZ was grappling with was that of power, which he said was being addressed expeditiously; and has been captured in the 2017 Federal Government budget.
He was accompanied by the head of CFTZ, Godwin Ekpe and other senior staffs of the free trade zone; and took the Senate committee members on a tour of the zone, welcoming their interests in ensuring that the objectives for setting up of the CFTZ were achieved and sustained.
He said 33 companies were operating in the zone, and a new independent power supply source was being worked on, as the old one was no longer reliable; adding that the management will continue to interface with the Senate committee on Trade and Investments, in other to provide whatever information they needed for the mutual benefit of the management and the National Assembly.
Chairman of the Senate committee of Trade and Investments, Fetimat Raji-Rasaki, who led other committee members on the visit to the CFTZ, told journalists that the aim of the committee’s visit was to ensure that the Federal Government investments in the zone met the desired objectives and goals.
She expressed concern over the power supply challenges in the CFTZ, and charged the management of the zone to keep the pledge at ensuring that the alternative power source was expeditiously addressed.
The committee also demanded for more information from the management to assist the work of the committee in working for needs of the investors in the zone.
The Calabar Free Trade was Nigeria’s premier free trade zone, which was formerly commissioned in 2002, after work had started since 1991.
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